Česká geologická služba
Virtual museum
Home  > Taxonomy > Animals > Metazoans > Echinoderms > Cystoids

Cystoidea (Cystoids)

      The Cystoidea or cystoids, are extinct echinoderms that lived attached to the sea floor by stalks, and are distinguished from other echinoderms by triangular pore openings. Superficially, the cystoids resembled crinoids, but they had an ovoid, rather than cup-shaped, body. The mouth was at the upper pole of the body, with the opposite end attached to the substratum, often by a stalk, although some stalkless species did exist. The anus lay on the side of the body. Five, or less commonly three, ambulacral areas ran along the outside of the body, radiating outwards from the mouth. A number of small tentacles either surrounded the mouth, or projected outwards in a row from the ambulacral areas, depending on species. The most distinctive feature of cystoids was the presence of a number of pores in the rigid skeleton encasing the body. These were most likely respiratory in nature, allowing fluid to flow in or out of the body. In some species, the pores were clustered in distinct regions, but in others they were distributed quite widely over the body surface.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cystoids
cystoidea
Img. 82:
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP207
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP213
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP171
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP168
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP172
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP176
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP178
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP179
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP184
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP187
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP145
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP147
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP142
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP143
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP144
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP153
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP155
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP149
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP158
Codiacystis bohemica Barrande, 1887 KP210

Virtual museum of the Czech Geological Survey, www.geology.cz, (C) Czech Geological Survey, 2011, v.0.99 [13.12.2011]